Conventional surface-mount technology (SMT) provides a way of interconnecting electronic circuit components with each other. For example, according to such technology, electronic devices can be specifically packaged for subsequent mounting directly on a respective surface of a printed circuit board. Because of the advantages associated with surface mount technology such as smaller part size, surface mount technology has, to a large extent, replaced so-called through-hole technology in which wire leads of components are fitted and soldered into holes of a printed circuit board to provide connectivity.
Surface mount devices can be packaged according to a variety of different styles. For example, a surface mount device can have relatively small leads or no leads extending from the package at all. Because a surface mount device has relatively small leads or no leads at all, a surface mount device is usually smaller than its through-hole (e.g., pin-based) counterpart. The surface mount device may have short pins or leads of various styles, flat contacts, a matrix of solder balls (such as Ball Grid Arrays), or terminations on the body of the component.
According to a conventional application, surface mount devices can include internal bond wires connecting nodes of an integrated circuit to pads of the surface mount device. The pads of the surface mount device can then be connected to a respective circuit board.
As an alternative to fabricating an integrated circuitry device into an electronic circuit package, the integrated circuit device can be mounted directly to a circuit board. For example, a backside surface of a semiconductor device can be mounted to a printed circuit board. The exposed top surface of the semiconductor device can include circuit nodes. Bond wires between the nodes on the semiconductor device and the printed circuit board connect the semiconductor device to the printed circuit board.